FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING BIOGRAPHIES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND ALBERT EINSTEIN, THIS IS THE EXCLUSIVE BIOGRAPHY OF STEVE JOBS Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published He put nothing offlimits He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values Walter Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, has been the chairman of CNN and the managing editor of Time magazine He is the author of Einstein: His Life and Universe, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, and Kissinger: A Biography, and is the coauthor, with Evan Thomas, of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made He and his wife live in Washington, D.C MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT SimonandSchuster.com • THE SOURCE FOR READING GROUPS • JACKET PHOTOGRAPHS: FRONT BY ALBERT WATSON; BACK BY NORMAN SEEFF COPYRIGHT © 2011 SIMON & SCHUSTER Thank you for purchasing this Simon & Schuster eBook Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Simon & Schuster or visit us online to sign up at eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com ALSO BY WALTER ISAACSON American Sketches Einstein: His Life and Universe A Benjamin Franklin Reader Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Kissinger: A Biography The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (with Evan Thomas) Pro and Con STEVE JOBS Paul Jobs with Steve, 1956 At NeXT, 1988: Freed from the constraints at Apple, he indulged his own best and worst instincts With John Lasseter, August 1997: His cherubic face and demeanor masked an artistic perfectionism that rivaled that of Jobs At home working on his Boston Macworld speech after regaining command of Apple, 1997: “In that craziness we see genius.” Sealing the Microsoft deal by phone with Gates: “Bill, thank you for your support of this company I think the world’s a better place for it.” At Boston Macworld, as Gates discusses their deal: “That was my worst and stupidest staging event ever It made me look small.” With his wife, Laurene Powell, in their backyard in Palo Alto, August 1997: She was the sensible anchor in his life At his home office in Palo Alto, 2004: “I like living at the intersection of the humanities and technology.” From the Jobs Family Album In August 2011, when Jobs was very ill, we sat in his room and went through wedding and vacation pictures for me to use in this book The wedding ceremony, 1991: Kobun Chino, Steve’s Sōtō Zen teacher, shook a stick, struck a gong, lit incense, and chanted With his proud father Paul Jobs: After Steve’s sister Mona tracked down their biological father, Steve refused ever to meet him Cutting the cake in the shape of Half Dome with Laurene and his daughter from a previous relationship, Lisa Brennan Laurene, Lisa, and Steve: Lisa moved into their home shortly afterward and stayed through her high school years Steve, Eve, Reed, Erin, and Laurene in Ravello, Italy, 2003: Even on vacation, he often withdrew into his work Dangling Eve in Foothills Park, Palo Alto: “She’s a pistol and has the strongest will of any kid I’ve ever met It’s like payback.” With Laurene, Eve, Erin, and Lisa at the Corinth Canal in Greece, 2006: “For young people, this whole world is the same now.” With Erin in Kyoto, 2010: Like Reed and Lisa, she got a special trip to Japan with her father With Reed in Kenya, 2007: “When I was diagnosed with cancer, I made my deal with God or whatever, which was that I really wanted to see Reed graduate.” And just one more from Diana Walker: a 2004 portrait at his house in Palo Alto FOOTNOTES Raskin died of pancreatic cancer in 2005, not long after Jobs was diagnosed with the disease The firm changed its name from frogdesign to frog design in 2000 and moved to San Francisco Esslinger picked the original name not merely because frogs have the ability to metamorphose, but as a salute to its roots in the (f)ederal (r)epublic (o)f (g)ermany He said that “the lowercase letters offered a nod to the Bauhaus notion of a non-hierarchical language, reinforcing the company’s ethos of democratic partnership.” We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster eBook Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Simon & Schuster or visit us online to sign up at eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com ... Steve PATTY JOBS Adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs two years after they adopted Steve PAUL REINHOLD Jobs Wisconsin-born Coast Guard seaman who, with his wife, Clara, adopted Steve in 1955 REED JOBS. .. HAGOPIAN Jobs Daughter of Armenian immigrants, married Paul Jobs in 1946; they adopted Steve soon after his birth in 1955 ERIN JOBS Middle child of Laurene Powell and Steve Jobs EVE JOBS Youngest... operating officer hired by Jobs in 1998; replaced Jobs as Apple CEO in August 2011 EDDY CUE Chief of Internet services at Apple, Jobs s wingman in dealing with content companies ANDREA “ANDY”